By Staff Reporter
AN official with a foreign company which partnered City of Harare under a private public partnership (PPP) has vowed to fight to prove the agreements entered between the two entities were above board.
Sunshine Development (Pvt) Limited director, Tatiana Ellis, told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that she came to Zimbabwe with good intentions to invest millions of dollars for the benefit of the people of this country.
Sunshine Development (Pvt) Ltd is into land development and Ellis dispelled allegations made against the company regarding immovable property agreements.
Under the PPP deal, Sunshine Development Pvt Limited entered into a partnership with council on 30-70% shareholding agreement.
Several council pieces of land were part of deals which would be developed.
According to Ellis, the company paid US$40 million between 2006 and 2007 whilst the total amount injected into the project to this day had reached over US$160 million.
During a Question-and-Answer session after a presentation by the company officials in Harare, PAC member, Prosper Mutseyami, asked what the investor and the council had brought into the deal and how the two had worked out the shareholding structure.
Another member questioned what had informed the shareholding structure of 30% to 70%.
‘’We will do our best to contribute to this country. We will work together as partners, but my query is: ls there anyone in the world who can put money on a project without proper paperwork such as licences or permits etc? This project was worth US$40 million in 2006/2007 but now it’s worth over US160 million.
‘’We will constantly put money into the project. We are here to build a future together. If we work together as a team, and be efficient, you will see the results,’’ Ellis told the committee Wednesday.
There had been issues that led to litigation involving Council and the investor over the land deal agreements but according to the Mayor, Jacob Mafume, the issues were resolved in 2018.
Ellis warned the city officials: ‘’Eyes never lie and that is why we are winning all the cases. There is only one way to protect yourself.
‘’Law and order, and in Zimbabwe, there is law and order, protection and efficiency.
“The transfer of land to Sunshine Development was done efficiently. We have a 30 -70% partnership. The land in transfer cannot be developed until you put money into aproposed project.
“I want Zimbabweans to know once we start receiving our permits and licences we will gradually put money, and we have a financial internal audit and an external audit every year which will today be presented to Harare City. All our documents are in order. Everything is done above board,’’ Ellis said.
The mayor further explained the current status of the transactions made so far between the two organisations.
“The city council contributed to the land and the investor, (Sunshine Development (Pvt) Limited contributed some money on a 30:70 percent share respectively.
‘’We were supposed to develop on investment and work out the modalities on how each party benefits in that arrangement.
‘’We have the chamber secretary as one of the directors and another nominee from us into the board of Sunshine Development (Pvt) Ltd as a minority shareholder.
‘’At some point, there were litigations in 2018 which were settled. We are now at a point where we have to come to a solid understanding of how each party will benefit from the transaction in line with various contributions each party contributed,’’ Mafume said.
The company is subsumed in the West Property (Pvt) Ltd where it has built its brand.
PAC has been touring companies that partnered the city council under the triple Ps to check on compliance after the auditor-general’s report recommended revealed in the report that some companies under the PPPs arrangement with council were not up to date regarding submission of company financial reports.
The auditor-general in her 2023 report showed that most companies were not compliant with accounting procedures, failing to submit the books to the local authority on time for auditing purposes.
Committee chairperson, Charlton Hwende told journalists that some companies had complied with the auditor-general’s recommendations after the report came out.
The committee toured Mbudzi People’s Market, and the Hills Luxury Lifestyle Estate where substantial amounts of work had commenced.